Fans of Harry Potter have successfully re-routed a $580 million power project after discovering that an underground cable could pass through the spot where Dobby, the fictional house elf, was buried in the fantasy film series.
The character was buried on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The location has since become an unofficial memorial for fans, who regularly leave stones inscribed with messages such as ‘Here lies Dobby’ despite the fact that the National Trust, which owns the land, discourages the practice because the beach is an ecologically sensitive area.
They also used to leave socks, because Potter uses a sock to trick his Hogwarts enemy Lucius Malfoy into giving Dobby his freedom from a slavery-style existence.
The project which affected the site is by Dublin-based Greenlink, who want to build a subsea and underground electricity interconnector cable linking the existing grids in Ireland and the UK to supply power when and where it is most needed.
It planned to connect EirGrid’s substation in County Wexford to Britain’s National Grid’s Pembroke substation.
However, in a BBC interview, Greenlink project manager Simon Ludlam stated that the 190-km high-voltage interconnector was going to be put under the ‘grave site’.
He revealed the company began receiving hundreds of calls from angry Harry Potter fans demanding that the route be changed after the broadcast.
Ludlam, who admitted he initially had no idea who the character was, recalled how a colleague broke the news: ‘Apparently we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave’.
He explained: ‘I said: “Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby? He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?”’
His colleague responded: ‘No, it’s very, very serious.’
The backlash prompted Greenlink to return to planners and find an alternative route.
‘We got back with the planners, and we discussed exactly how to re-route the cable, so we wouldn’t go anywhere near Dobby’s grave,’ Ludlam said. ‘A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now ongoing and Dobby’s happy.’
The new route will instead pass close to genuine prehistoric human remains, although planners have avoided disturbing them.
‘We went quite close to some real Bronze Age remains, but we avoided Dobby’s grave,’ said Ludlum. ‘It’s the first time; we’ve moved for a fictitious character.’
He said the project had to remain responsive adding: ‘You’ve got to be flexible, agile, and thoughtful. Sometimes, you know what, a 10-year-old girl, she’s right.’
